An alien space ship......the end of the world......

Plot[edit]

Cassie Sullivan, armed with an AR15, emerges from the woods to raid an abandoned gas station. Upon entering, she hears a male voice calling for help. While searching the store, she hears a man, who points a gun at her, but they each put their weapons down. His right hand is in his jacket and as he takes out his hand, she sees a glint of metal and kills him. He was holding a crucifix and the screen cuts to black to show her backstory.

At home, the news reports a strange city-sized hovering structure over their home in Ohio, containing invading extraterrestrials referred to as "The Others". Ten days later The Others cut the power off, causing Cassie's classmates' cars to crash into each other and a plane to fall from the sky. After this First Wave, Cassie and her family pack up and leave the house. The Second Wave sees The Others drop a large metal rod on to the Earth's fault lines causing tsunamis to kill those living in coastal cities. While at a new refuge location, Cassie and her younger brother Sammy go to collect water as the the area is struck by earthquakes and floods, and they climb a tree to avoid the flood.

For the Third Wave, The Others genetically create a deadly virus using three million birds to carry a disease. Cassie then reunites with her mother, Lisa. Cassie's mother warns her to take her brother to safety to avoid the plague. Cassie's mother then dies from the plague and her family create a memorial in their backyard.

In search of a safe community, Cassie leaves with her father and brother and eventually stumbles upon a refugee camp in the woods. A few days later, an army rolls into the camp, and places all of the children on a bus. The army claim that there is an imminent threat, and that they want to take the children to a safe place first, before coming back for the adults. Cassie gets separated from Sam, and from a distance, she watches as her father and other survivors are killed in a massacre by the army after resistance from refugees being told they would never see their children again.

Cassie scavenges her way toward the Wright-Patterson Army Base to find her brother, but is shot in the leg by an unseen enemy when she walks out onto the debris-filled freeway. Cassie attempts to flee into the woods as blood gushes out of her leg, and passes out before reaching safety. Five days later, Cassie wakes up in a bed inside of a house, and meets Evan Walker. She learns that Evan saved her from bleeding to death on the freeway, and has been taking care of her. When Cassie asks about her gun, Evan claims that he didn't see one on the freeway. Later on, Cassie finds her gun hidden underneath the floorboards in Evan's room, and quickly packs her belongings up and runs from the house. She trips on a wire which sets off a home made alarm, and gets chased down by Evan. He pins her down as she tries to escape, but she stays silent as she realizes that an enemy sniper is hunting close to them. Afterwards, Cassie leaves to find Sam, and Evan accompanies her to help her. Cassie eventually kisses him after he bandages her leg again, but later learns that he is an Other in humanoid form. She leaves on her own to go find Sam, but not before Evan tells her that Colonel Vosch and the army are actually Others, and that the Fifth Wave will use children to eliminate the rest of Earth's survivors by misleading them.

The only thing that keeps Cassie going is the hope that she can save her brother from the training camp established by the army. Ben Parish (Cassie's crush before the First Wave) and her brother are in the same squad and Ben learns of The Others' plans. When Cassie and Ben are confronted by two army soldiers, Evan falls through the ceiling and kills the soldiers. He tells Cassie that he chooses to be human and to help the human race, and kisses her. Evan tells Cassie and Ben to go find Sam before he then blows up the training facility. The Others are in the process of evacuating and deploying the children to other cities. When they find Sam, the three of them run and get into Ringer's car as the facility explodes, leaving them with the question of whether Evan survived or not. Ben and his squad are enjoying their meal with Cassie, who ponder hope as humanity's driving force for survival.